Colombian bishops criticize guerrillas after killing of deputies

Published: 2007-07-09

BOGOTA, Colombia (CNS) -- Amid a national wave of revulsion against the nation's leftist guerrillas and the practice of kidnapping, church leaders have been uncharacteristically critical of the guerrillas. "The insurgents can no longer continue ridiculing the country," Bogota Cardinal Pedro Rubiano Saenz said during the Colombian bishops' annual meeting in early July. In late June, the bishops and other Colombians learned that 11 of a group of 12 regional deputies kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia had been killed in captivity. "The FARC cannot wash their hands of this and must assume their responsibility," said Archbishop Ruben Salazar Gomez of Barranquilla, using the Spanish acronym by which the guerrilla group is known. In a statement on the Internet June 28, the guerrillas said that the deputies, kidnapped in 2002, were killed June 18 by crossfire during an attack on a rebel camp. But the government denied that any major battles or rescue attempts had taken place during that time.

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